The union cabinet on Wednesday approved signing of an agreement for exchange of information related to taxes between India and the Maldives.

“The agreement will stimulate effective exchange of information between the two countries which will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance,” a cabinet communique said.

At the G20 nations summit in Australia in November last year, the leaders endorsed a new global transparency standard by which more than 90 jurisdictions would begin automatic exchange of tax information, using a common reporting standard by 2017-18.

The deal will not only allow the countries to extract bank details for future, but they could also avail account balance information of the past five to six years upon request.